UK Commercial Radio Timeline 1990-1991 

LOVE that jingle!

Thanks for the detailed feedback - much appreciated! Next chunk in the works......

All of these split frequencies, why did stations not just shut down the AM transmitters snd continue to broadcast the original stations on FM only? The newer ststions thst came on air in the 1990's only broadcast on FM but souned like the old style stations pre the many station splits. Central FM - The information station? That's what the resung jingles in the esrly dsys of the station that were used on the old pre-split Radio Forth suggested snyway. In reslity it was/is (now on 103.1 mHZ FM these days) anything but the information station. Central FM moved to Falkirk in 1997. Thst was the time they stopped taking Max AM output between 7pm and 6am. Though before then after the rebrand from Centresound they did their own programmes after 7pm Friday's to Sunday's for at least 3 hours and on Sunday evenings never took Max AM's output at all and only joined Max AM at 1am on Monday mornings when all the Scottish AM stations plus Radio Borders did. Why did the news host on the overnight and weekend Scottish news service at the time say "It's 3 minutes past 10"?. Maybe it's time to ressurect the Scottish overnight and weekend news service in Scotland instead of the Sky News owned or sponsored IRN News with no news bulletin at 8pm, 9pm, 11pm and 3am.

I love Centre Radio's "At the Centre of Everything" jingle bed, which was later resung for Delta Radio and Centresound in 1990. The phrase "At the Centre of Everything" is pretty much accurate as Britain is the centre of the world and Leicester is technically the heart of the country.

It was the only "jingle" I could find for SouthWest Sound (featured at around 4.19 - and I fell in love with it! I suspect both outlets used it.

was southwest sound a clone of west sound because of the logo

@@NelvanaFan1971 They were the same company. Recalling old radio schedules of Scottish ilr's on the Daily Record in the 1980's and 1990's, some of the DJ's were on West Sound were also on South West Sound but not on both West Sound and South West Sound at the same time. Way back then those DJ's would habr had to travel to both Ayr and Dumfries to present their shows. I used to hear West Sound on 1035AM "Two-Nine-O Two-Nine-O Two-Nine O" on AM in Falkirk during the day but with some back background noise with Ayr being a long way away. Northsound on the same frequency would come in while it was dark but I could not properly hear either. People claim that the new stations were better but try telling listeners who preferred oldies mixed into tgr playlist who were forced to switch from the FM wavelength to the crappy AM wavelength thanks to the terrible decision by Thatcher's tory government in the 1980's. The Tories just couldn't care less that the original pre split stations had to be on both FM and AM to be heard throughout the whole of the reception area. 96.8 on FM (originally called VHF) for Radio Forth was far better for those on the outer circle of the reception area than 1548 KHZ on AM when Radio became Max AM on AM and Forth RFM on FM (now on 97.3 FM but not really switched from 96.8 because the original Radio Forth was heard in the west of the reception area on 97.3 pre frequency split. 96.8 where Radio Forth was heard in Central Borders and mid lothian became the new Radio Borders instead of the old Radio Forth. There were other frequencies on FM in other the borders for the Radio Forth that also became frequencies for the new Radio Borders instead of Radio Forth). Max AM (originally Radio Forth) 7pm to 6am on the new Radio Borders FM frequencies must have been a legacy of the old pre split Radio Forth because the transmitters would have all been linked to the Radio Forth studios in Edinburgh. I recall after the overnight Scottish news service bulletin host said 'it's three minutes past 10 the Max AM jingles played Ken Haynes said "In company with Radio Borders and Central FM" Back then the original Scottish ilr's apart from Central FM and Radio Borders were not owned by anybody other than themselves. It was good (pre frequency splits). But all of them becoming part of the same group (the SRH) was the start of the slippery slope towards the now Greatest Hits Radio with far too many of the shows coming from England. The frequency splits forced by the Thatcher tory government which brought about different stations on FM and AM was also a terrible thing.

Take a look at this article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_Sussex - it has a pretty comprehensive breakdown.

And I can't even remember where I found it!

@@tvradiotimelines It's at least something to remember about Max AM anyway. Used to love listening to Max AM as the now Forth 2 was called then especially when Central FM aired their evening and overnight schedule. It sounded a lot better on 96.7mHZ FM later 103.1mHZ FM than it did on 1548kHz AM. But it was never in stereo even though the stereo light was on on my personal stereo radio and cassette player.

I suspect that was deliberate although I doubt they could afford him. On the other hand, Melody got Sinatra to record an opening announcement so you never know,,,,,

I tend not to include frequency changes unless the actual name of the station changes or there is a complete rebrand. There are a fair frequency changes throughout the history of UK commercial radio.

@@tvradiotimelines this is splendid work. Well done. Your Central FM jingle is though one of the 103.1 ones from after 1996. I could supply you an original one from '91 if you wanted to be historically super-accurate 🙂... I'm sure it won't matter.

@@daveybain1 Thanks, David. It is sometimes hard to find jingles that date from the actual era; I am, for example, struggling to find ANYTHING from Viva! (the London women's station) for the next 1994-1995 chapter. Thanks for the offer. I will bear it in mind if/when I update the series. Much appreciated!

@@tvradiotimelines good luck with that then! I don't think that lasted very long from memory.... It would probably have done quite well today.

@@daveybain1 It turned into Liberty radio after only a few months but I am still surprised I have not been able to find any audio/visuals online!

Thanks for the feedback.Apologies for that!

The first two certainly - but Heart was late 94 so not sure if it will be in the next chunk or the one after that (depends on how long the next one goes on for...)

Lincs FM and Pirate FM

I am not quite sure what you mean by "the other". If you could let me know I will try to provide clarification.

@@tvradiotimelines I meant Wikipedia.

@@andrewwint3052 Thanks for clarifying. I did a lot of additional research and Wikipedia is sometimes contradictory on dates. The Wikipedia page entitled "Timeline of independent radio in the United Kingdom" quotes 15 July 1990 as the split date but the main "Radio Forth" Wikipedia entry (sidebar) specifically states 6 February 1990; this latter date is borne out by other articles I found so I decided to opt for that as the most likely correct date.

I suppose that's the definition of "heritage" names!

Good wow? Bad wow? 😁

@@tvradiotimelines Good wow

But why did I have to say good wow or bad wow?

Good wow

@@AIDANBCI was just intrigued to know whether you liked it or not!

Homogenisation since deregulation too, sadly!

They should sll have been made to close down their AM transmitters instead of airing 2 different services on FM and AM.

@@dvidclapperton The IBA wouldn't do that because they wanted choice for listeners on AM as well as FM.

@@anthonyperkins7556 And as we all know, choice is preferable to quality, allegedly...

@@GryphLane Yes. AM suits news, talk, sport and golden oldies music where quality isn't so critical.